Tess Denman-Cleaver, Nicola Singh and Sophie Buxton
She Riffs brings three artists together to present re-worked versions of performance or drawing.
Tess Denman-Cleaver will perform Of Bensham and the Return Part 2. Through a process of annotation and rewriting, Tess has written Part 2 after Part 1 was performed at the opening of Women Artists of the North East Library at Workplace in June.
Of Bensham is a performance and text originally written on the occasion Tess moved back to her birthplace. The text includes fragments of a transcribed phone conversation Tess had with her Mum. It was first performed at the Shipley Art Gallery in Bensham for CIRCA Projects & Giles Bailey's Festival is Sudden 2017.
Nicola will present a performance that riffs off her research into performance writing, moving through a transition from written text to spoken word through performance.
In the context of the Women’s Library of the North East, she will focus on performative frameworks for publishing, citation and archiving – as a means to contribute her ephemeral work to the library catalogue.
For She Riffs Sophie Buxton will bring work made in the exhibition space during one week in August. This will be another iteration of the work, another verse.
Nicola Singh is an artist, arts educator and researcher based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Her practice is rooted in performance and moves across disciplines, integrating objects, installation, print, text, textiles and photography. She works from her own personal experiences and urges, and creates situations for others to explore embodied, bodily, instinctive and intimate experience.
Nicola also works as an arts educator in gallery, school and community settings, exploring ideas of performative, discursive and physical approaches to pedagogy and research. She holds a practice-based PhD in Fine Art, titled “On the ‘thesis by performance’: a feminist research method for the practice-based PhD”.
Her work presented internationally and across the UK, including Centrala Space for Post Paradise, UK (2018), Workplace Gallery, UK (2018), Hongti Art Centre, South Korea (2018), Caustic Coastal, UK (2018), LUX & LUX Scotland (2017), BALTIC, UK (2017), New Art Centre, United States (2016). Recent invitations to lead public workshops include The Turner Prize Public Programme at Ferens Gallery (UK) (2017) and Bloomberg New Contemporaries (UK) (2017). Awards include the 3-Phase Commission from Jerwood Visual Arts, Workplace Gallery and Eastside Projects (2017-2018), British Council Artist International Development Fund (2016), Arts Council UK/KOREA Exchange Award (2018) and the Northern Print Bursary (2018). www.nicolasingh.co.uk
Tess Denman-Cleaver is a North East based artist, originally from Gateshead. Her work spans live performance, performance writing and publication, performative workshops and installation. Recent projects include; In the waste land... and other poems (Turner Contemporary, 2018), Time Passes (St Ives, M_HKA Gallery Antwerp, Paul Melon Centre, 2017-18), Villa Stein (Audiograft Festival, 2018), Expanded Analogue (Wilkinson Gallery, 2017). She is currently Artist in Residence at Middlesbrough Town Hall creating new work for Middlesbrough Art Weekender 2018. She is working with artist Tim Shaw on a new commission for English Heritage and Arts & Heritage in Summer 2018, and between June 2018-19 is Artist in Residence at the Sonic Arts Research Unit (Oxford). Tess was the Artistic Director of Tender Buttons theatre and performance company between 2010-18. She was a programmer at The Northern Charter between 2015-2018, and recently completed a PhD on landscape and performance philosophy at Newcastle University.
Sophie Buxton is a visual artist currently based in Newcastle. She studied Fine Art at Aberdeen and at the Royal Academy Schools, London. For the last 13 years she has developed her practice whilst looking after her old and young family. Sophie has exhibited in group exhibitions in UK and Europe and been part of many participatory and community arts projects. Recent projects include Montage Table at Northern Charter (2016) and she is project producer and co-curator of ArtHouses (2017-18).